Fig. 2: HPS of natural compounds that inhibit spike and ACE2 interaction.
From: Fluorogenic reporter enables identification of compounds that inhibit SARS-CoV-2
a, Schematic showing experimental procedure. b, Volcano plot of ~2,600 natural compounds involved in inhibition of PPI of spike and ACE2. HEK293T cells were transfected with SURF reporter; SURF fluorescence was normalized by mCherry. Cells were incubated with each compound at 10 µM for 24 h before imaging. Dashed horizontal and vertical red lines represent P = 0.01 and 50% PPI inhibition, respectively. P values, two-sided nonpaired t-test between compound- and DMSO-treated groups (n = 5). c, Normalized SURF fluorescence of cells preincubated with 25 compounds (10 µM) for 6 h. Dashed red line represents 50% PPI inhibition. d, Inhibition kinetics of the identified natural compounds against spike–ACE2 interaction. Each compound (10 µM) was added to HEK293T cells expressing the SURF reporter, followed by time-lapse imaging. Estimated PPI half-life (𝜏) following inhibition is shown for each compound. c,d, Data presented as mean ± s.d. (n = 5).
